Marc Jacobs's Psychiatrist Helped Him Decide to Turn Down That Dior Job

Marc Jacobs is in a candid mood this week.
On Monday, at WWD's CEO Summit, the designer opened up about being 'old news' to the tabloids, and feeling jaded about fashion (oh and disclosed when his new makeup line would come out). And on Wednesday, as the featured guest in the latest installment of Fern Mallis' 92Y Fashion Icons' series, Jacobs got real about his relationship with ex-fiance Lorenzo Martone, how he befriended Victoria Beckham, and why he really decided not to go to Dior.

On Monday, at WWD's CEO Summit, the designer opened up about being 'old news' to the tabloids, and feeling jaded about fashion (oh and disclosed when his new makeup line would come out). And on Wednesday, as the featured guest in the latest installment of Fern Mallis' 92Y Fashion Icons' series, Jacobs got real about his relationship with ex-fiance Lorenzo Martone, how he befriended Victoria Beckham, and why he really decided not to go to Dior.

There's been much speculation about why Jacobs turned down the coveted Dior job. Some reports had it that Jacobs was demanding too high a salary, while others said it had to do with the seismic shift that would occur if Jacobs had to step down from Louis Vuitton to fill the position. Turns out the reasons were far more personal than that.

According to WWD, Jacobs told Mallis that while he was flattered to be offered the job at Dior, he “never dreamed of being a couturier and thinks it would be a very difficult place to work.”

He added:

“It was actually my psychiatrist who said, ‘How is this going to improve the quality of your life?’ and I said, ‘It’s not.’ I mean, two more shows--and after Galliano, what he has done--when am I going to live my life?”

In an age when designers face enormous amounts of pressure to deliver critically acclaimed collections season after season, as well as design collaborations and special projects, and do it all under the public's microscope--factors that some say lead to John Galliano's demise--it's no wonder Jacobs was worried. Happily, with Raf Simons now at Dior, it all worked out for the best anyway.

Jacobs was also surprisingly candid about his split from ex-fiance Lorenzo Martone: "He asked me to marry him and then he broke up with me. Everybody thinks I’m the bad guy, but he just changed his mind." He added that the two are best friends and that he and his boyfriend porn star Harry Louis are "in love." Aw.

As for another influential person in Jacobs's life--Victoria Beckham--the designer said that they struck up a friendship when, upon seeing Victoria on the cover of a magazine (which we're assuming was a tabloid) sporting a fake Louis Vuitton, Jacobs sent her the real thing. Sigh, he's like the fashion fairy godmother.

But Jacobs didn't have nice things to say about everyone. In fact the designer let off some steam when it came to fashion critics. "There are very few, and I don’t mean this in a bitchy way, journalists who I respect," he said. "I don’t think a lot of them know what they’re looking at."

"I don’t sometimes feel the criticism is valid," he continued. "I’m fine with constructive criticism but I’m not so good with stupidity. It’s one thing to say ‘I like or I don’t like’ but to misread or mislabel something or to be out of sorts because it was raining, or a late show or you were hungry. That just all feels not valid."

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Even though the anticipation of waiting for Marc Jacobs nearly killed us after he postponed his show due to Hurricane Irene--it's fitting that he showed last. Because not only does Marc Jacobs consistently present one of the best and most important collections each season (in terms of setting trends), but he also really puts on a show.
And last night, Jacobs literally put a show. A heavy gold curtain parted to reveal a full cast of models draped Fosse-style over wooden chairs across the length of the stage (think of the "Cell Block Tango" number from Chicago or A Chorus Line)--and you could actually hear the audience gasp ('Are they going to dance? Sing?' we hoped). Earlier that night, Jacobs' sent out an urgent email canceling all backstage beauty press due to "a very long technical rehearsal" and now we understand why. The show was intricately choreographed, with models exiting the Broadway-esque tableau at precise times to walk the stage, which was set like a dance hall in a barn--a simple wooden frame lined with bulbs bisected the runway. And in another nod to Fosse, Jacobs, clad all in black (he was even wearing jazz pants), crouched behind his models, clapping along to keep time and give his dancers models cues--and all of it to a Phillip Glass soundtrack of voices counting to eight over and over--standard for choreography.
It was as if Marc was winking at us, taking the stage because he knew he was at the center of it as the name on the tip of everyone's tongue to succeed Galliano at Dior. Jacobs told WWD that taking the job at the storied French house “has nothing to do with salary. I mean, I’d be honored to do Dior. But I work with a team, and I’d like to be able to keep working with them. I think it would be really exciting. I wouldn’t be able to say no.”
But we should talk about the clothes.

It's no surprise that at last night's WWD CEO Summit, Jacobs declared Mrs. Prada his all-time favorite designer, dead or alive. "What she's created with her husband is really incredible," he said. "I'm just a big fan."
That wasn't all Jacobs revealed during his chat with WWD executive editor Bridget Foley. The designer went on about his current contract negotiations with LVMH (without saying too much, of course). "I'm not really sure...I know that we're discussing [renegotiations]," he said vaguely when Foley pressed.
He was more frank about his upcoming beauty line with Sephora.

Remember when Marc Jacobs was an awkward, bespectacled, long-haired, slightly chubby, kinda dirty-looking guy who looked like he never left his studio? We do, and we'll admit it: sometimes, we kind of miss him. He just seemed so self-deprecating and smart and relatable and like he was all about his craft and he and Sofia Coppola just hung out and watched movies in bed all the time. We've never completely understood why the designer felt the need to transform into the tanned, beefed-up, overly groomed person he is today--until now.
In an interview with The Talks, Jacobs dishes about his approach to making clothes, finding happiness and actually talks a lot about his decision to get in shape and transform his own image and how that helped him relate to his customer. Click through for the best bits.

Marc Jacobs is not going to Dior.
A source close to the situation tells us Jacobs "declined" the job for good sometime in "mid November." LVMH reportedly approached Jacobs about taking the reigns at Dior in July after Bill Gaytten showed his critically-slammed couture collection for the house. Jacobs seemed a shoe-in for the job. But negotiations between LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, Dior president Sidney Toledano and Jacobs fell apart over money and the reorganization of Jacobs' team. According to a source, Jacobs wanted to bring his team from Vuitton to Dior and "transfer the aesthetic from one house to another" (which might explain the dramatic shift towards a more girly aesthetic in Jacobs' spring collection for Vuitton).